


Crimson and Cobalt

by Peryton



Series: Shielded Heart [1]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 23:07:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5720431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peryton/pseuds/Peryton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soulmate AU where people can't see colours until they come within twenty yards of their soul mates. Agent Maria Hill is on a mission in Russia when her vision suddenly becomes technicolour. Which is great right? Except there’s no one nearby but Hydra agents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Everything had gone wrong the minute her comms went dark. Actually that’s not true. Everything had gone wrong the minute Hawkeye had been flagged to go to Zurich for Coulson and since she was one of the highest ranking field agents Fury had suggested she go. Even though she hadn’t been in the field for _years_ , not properly at any rate. She had been running multiple agents on multiple jobs, making sure agents didn’t mess up in the field and ensuring there were contingencies in place to evacuate them if they did. Which happened way more often than she’d like. But she hadn’t been in the field as primary since she’d stopped Fury from causing a major international incident when things got heated with the Norwegian delegate about the proper storage of single malt whiskey. And that’s not to say she wasn’t capable, she was and would knock out anyone who implied that wasn’t the case. But Fury couldn’t run S.H.I.E.L.D. without her, he knew that and she knew that. Yet somehow he had managed to manipulate her into coming to Lesnoy of all places, to try and recover some plans from a Hydra cell that they weren’t sure Hydra even had.

“Agent Hill to Norwood, do you copy?” Maria sighed as the state-of-the-art, battle-tested, guaranteed-to-function-up-to-three-galaxies-away piece of crap that stubbornly refused to work. “Goddamned Stark.” Maria hissed and she gave the communicator a few hard whacks on the side of the wall. Which amazingly enough, did nothing to improve its current inoperative state.

Maria checked her surroundings; she was currently around seventy miles outside of Lesnoy trying to avoid the Hydra agents who had the run of the closed town, and track down the ‘secret base’. Maria held in a sigh, just once she would like to have a mission cross her desk that didn’t involve a secret base, mad scientist, underground brainwashing base or a volcanic zombie rehabilitation centre. How the other side got anything built within contractor safety regulations she’ll never know. She would have to move from this position soon, the patrols would be coming by in a few minutes. Their information on this area was clearly out of date; Maria had only been able to find a few smaller guard stations. She no idea where the base was, the only reason she knew it was in the area was the abundance of Hydra insignias and black cloaked sentries prowling the neighbourhood.

As Maria moved from under the protection of the dilapidated cabin she had found, she took in the bleak landscape once more, scanning the scenery intently and cursed her monochromatic vision, it would be so much easier to spot waiting snipers or hidden Hydra assassins if she didn’t see the world in shades of grey. Not that she was looking for… well, everything that that entailed. She’d seen the paperwork that occurred when someone at S.H.I.E.L.D. found their soulmate, background checks and random sweeps of their home. And they still weren’t allowed to tell them what they actually did for a living. Maria set her jaw and brushed those thoughts from her mind, ducking down between the cabin and the bare foliage shielding one wall she made to move up the small rise in an attempt to find better signal and radio for an extraction.

Maria saw the barrel of the gun just in time, moving swiftly to the side and swinging out her fist with enough force to break the man’s nose, then quickly taking his weapon and knocking him on the head with it hard enough to incapacitate. She hadn’t been quiet though. Sounds of the wandering guard being taken down had alerted others, she saw the narrow, blade-like beams of light from torches being turned on cutting through the darkness, now more intent on finding her than staying hidden themselves.

Maria let out a soft curse and started running, then it happened, colours, the sudden onslaught of them made her misstep and she slid down the incline back towards the gathering guards. Maria shook her head, trying to focus on the mission, on getting out of this mess. Trying to be glad that this had happened at night, with the darkness here to mute everything. But as it was Maria couldn’t help but look at the deep midnight blue of the sky, dark patches of sparse, prickly grass and the rich colour of the earth. Everything was distracting, filling her head with an influx of colour and variety in her previously grey world. But nothing was as distracting as the thought she couldn’t stop racing around her head, her soulmate was here, nearby; her soulmate was a hydra agent.

The shouting let her know the guards had seen her, Maria veered off to the side, down the slope looking for somewhere that was slightly less open. She saw the first Hydra agent before he spotted her and quickly stunned him with the taser Fitzsimmons had provided, he went down louder than Maria would have liked and made a note to speak to Fitzsimmons about their neuroimmobilisers. A second agent succeeded in knocking the taser from her hand and she immediately grabbed onto his arm, twisting it until he dropped and moved onto the third agent who was holding an electrified baton rather nervously. The blow to the back of her head caught her by surprise but when she turned, she was faced with three Hydra agents aiming guns and before she could formulate a plan of attack the electrified baton hit her across her shoulder and she staggered, a second blow causing her to slump to the ground.

Face pressed into the dirt, Maria’s hands were roughly pulled behind her back and tightly zip locked together. Maria winced as they found the small blades hidden on her belt when they stripped her of her weapons. Gone were the days of being put into a prison with a handy rusty nail sticking out the wall, or a useful piece of broken glass left on a window, without her knives getting out of these ties was going to be a bitch. She distantly heard what sounded like a fight happening somewhere outside of her field of vision. Well, it actually sounded like a group of men getting their asses handed to them, Maria could hear at least two crying and five minimum had all screamed at one point. One of the guards dragged her forcefully up to her feet before she was blindfolded and marched by two of the guards fifty paces east before they entered a vehicle of some kind. Maria tried to keep track of the direction and turns they were going but they were still off-road and Maria was sure the driver had gotten lost at some point as they seemed to be circling round. Unless they were just especially skilled at confusing prisoners.

Eventually Maria reached her destination and was unceremoniously shoved into a room, she heard the door slam shut behind her and multiple bolts and locks clanging home. Another successful mission. They hadn’t found the comms device hidden into the cuff of her combat suit, there was a chance she could get it to start working. If not the GPS might still be active and her team would at least know where she was when they decided that she had been dark for too long. Although considering S.H.I.E.L.D.’s current field guidelines, which she had helped write, that wouldn’t be for at least another ten hours.

Maria was quickly brought out of her internal cursing by soft footsteps approaching her. She froze imperceptibly, but the footsteps immediately ceased.

“The first thing I did was take the bag from my head.” A smooth, teasing voice came from the darkness. “Unless you like looking like a reject from wizard of oz.” The footsteps moved steadily closer and Maria felt the bag pulled from her head before being dazzled by the light in the cell, and the woman standing in front of her, wearing a combat suit she must have been sewn into, with the most extraordinary red hair Maria had ever seen. Although considering she hadn’t seen any in colour before she probably wasn’t the best opinion on the matter. “There, much better.” The woman purred, blatantly checking Maria out.

Maria rolled her eyes and ignored the spy, she had to be a spy Maria mused, no other agency would think that that catsuit was a good tactical uniform. And there’s no way any other agent could wear it and look anywhere near as good as she did.

Maria ignored the direction her thoughts had taken and focused on the cell she had found herself in. nothing useful, single bulb hanging from the ceiling, no windows and the walls all looked to be concrete with the only disruption to the concrete being a steel door. Typical to finally see colours and find myself in a grey room.

“What no playful banter? Threats to destroy me? S.H.I.E.L.D. really is sucking all the fun from you guys isn’t it? Makes me kind of miss the good old days.” The woman sighed insincerely.  

“Does Hydra only have one cell now?” Maria answered annoyance clear in her tone.

“Hey, don’t blame me, I heard your guy got lost and no one trusted to send him out again.”

The redhead leant back against the wall opposite Maria, one foot hooked behind the other giving her an air of complete ease and hinting at sensual pleasures. The kind of scene you see in magazines and know the models have been coached and shouted at for hours to pull off the level of natural sexiness. Maria pointedly ignored her and went to examine the door to the cell.

“Here’s how it will go. Either I disable you now and escape leaving you here for Hydra. Or we use what we have here and once out I disappear off leaving you none the wiser. Or unconscious, depending on how annoying you are.” The spy added thoughtfully.

“What have Hydra left? The room’s bare.”

“Well, they left me you blue eyes.” Maria rolled her eyes at that and squashed down the distant fluttering in her stomach. “Plus I have these.” The redhead’s empty hands were suddenly filled with an assortment of blades.

“Just how many knives do you have in that suit?”

“At least one of us is good at hiding our weapons. What did you have, a few obvious guns and some knives stitched on to your belt?” the spy smirks at Hill’s irritated face. 

 “How do you plan on using me to get out?” Maria eyed the redhead warily.

“You could scream.”

“What?”

“You scream, the guards come to check it out, it’s not very original but I find Hydra distinctly lacking in original thinking.”

“I am not screaming.” Maria said conclusively. The redhead eyed Maria speculatively,

“Oh, I don’t know, I bet with the right kind of stimuli…”

“Why don’t you scream?” Maria interrupted.

“It has to be a little believable.” The redhead gave a sly grin and moved behind Maria, who swung around quickly to face her, then noticed the ties binding her hands had been cut.

Maria rubbed her wrists awkwardly, shocked and quite offended when the woman promptly turned her back to her and began to pick the locks.

“How are you going to get through the door? Picking the lock won’t work, I heard deadbolts slide shut.”

As soon as Maria had finished talking the spy pulled out what looked like a thin strip of wire connected to two small marbles. The wire was threaded through the gap along the door and it lit up, glowing blue with a brightness that made Maria look away. The smell of heated metal filled the room and the door was easily pushed open. Maria relaxed her fighting stance once she realised no guards were going to immediately file into the room and followed the spy as she left the cell.

The spy was quick, Maria would give her that, by the time she followed the redhead into the main room in the small holding cell the three guards were already lying prone on the floor. The redhead tied their hands together and picked up two of their guns, holstering them on her belt. Maria picked up the other gun and followed the redhead outside.

Maria had to work to ignore the difference colour gave to her world, the slight light from the stars and occasional Hydra torches threw pale shadows against the buildings and foliage that merged with the hues Maria had never seen before, making everything seem more striking and ethereal. Maria focused instead on the woman with her, the way she effortlessly moved through the terrain, always looking for where the Hydra guards were, never faltering in her pace.

They were moving quickly through the sparse undergrowth when Maria signalled to stop and was almost surprised when the redhead paused and turned to watch her. Maria moved toward the side of the tree where she saw the Hydra guard and quietly crept up behind him, wrapped her arms around his neck, squeezing his windpipe with her elbow until the guard passed out. Maria saw the spy eying her impressed; the redhead gave Maria a nod and gestured for her to continue along the route.

They stopped at the last decent bit of cover and eyed the group of guards manning the searchlights that were scanning the open ground between them and the border of the Hydra compound. Maria looked around, checking their position and gauging where the next searchlight team were, contemplating whether they would be an easier mark when she saw the spy shake her head and point to the generator that powered the lights and alarm system. Maria nodded and checked the ammunition left in her weapon.

They quickly climbed the small tower and moved together in tandem to take out the guards. Maria couldn’t help but think they were more effective than most of the agents she had trained to work with. While they silently dealt with the guards nearer the back of the tower one near the lights turned and noticed them, shouting to alert his remaining colleague and gesturing wild enough to knock one of the searchlight controls, causing the light to spiral across the landscape.

The spy quickly moved towards the guard, catching his colleague with a blow to the side of his head and a spinning kick to his middle while moving forward, leaving him for Maria to handle the dazed man easily while she took down a guard in a move so graceful it almost looked as if she was dancing. Suddenly Maria realised why she looked so familiar, she had seen files on her but the pictures were always grainy, and Maria had been thrown by the sudden colour infusing everything, making everything, especially this woman so much more vibrant and beautiful than she was used to.

As soon as the guard was taken down the spy turned to face Maria, her eyes becoming hard and unreadable as she sees Maria has a gun trained on her.

“Black Widow.”


	2. Chapter 2

Maria holds her weapon steady, watching for any tiny movement from the superspy in front of her.

“I’ve read your file, I know about the Red Room-”

“And S.H.I.E.L.D. is such a shining example of all that is good and just?” The Widow interrupts, the contempt obvious in her voice.

“At least we’re trying.” Maria responds defensively. “What are you doing apart from playing both sides in order to make yourself rich?”

“As much as I’d love to have this talk, for some reason I don’t want to leave you passed out for Hydra to find, so is there a chance we can continue it after we move on from one of the Hydra search towers?”

Maria wavers for a moment, then the messages in Russian from the other Hydra guards asking why they had moved their lights so strangely coming through the communication panel make up her mind for her and she lowered the gun. The Black Widow eyes her for a moment before speaking into the communicator and telling them in Russian that everything was fine before locking the searchlights into a position aimed mostly at the ground and cutting the wires from the generator to the alarm.

As long as no one else spotted them they wouldn’t realise the Widow had just disabled all the alarms on all their search towers and guard bases. They move swiftly, leaving a few yards between them as they duck behind buildings and progress to the edge of the Hydra controlled area. Maria watches the Widow more than she keeps an eye out for Hydra agents; she knows who the real danger is. Which does leave her wondering why she’s still with her, particularly since the Widow now knows she isn’t friendly.

Eventually they pass the border marking the Hydra territory and without speaking both move towards a broken-down building. Once there, after they had both checked their newfound cover for Hydra agents and tech, the redhead turns to face Maria, her expression a mix of danger and curiosity.

“Now that that’s over let’s circle back to the interesting information.”

“Which part?” Maria asks guardedly, her hand still resting on the gun.

“You have a file on me?” The Widow arches an eyebrow and slinks predatorily towards her. Maria holds her ground against her better judgement and the without warning Black Widow is pressed up against her. “What do you know about me?” the redhead purrs against Maria’s neck, her hot breath causing Maria to shiver.

Maria’s brain short circuits and she finds herself babbling “Natalia Romanova also known as Natasha Romanoff code name Black Widow.” Maria begins, trying to stop her eyes from being drawn irresistibly down to the Widow’s plump red lips.

The Widow licks her lips and glides light, teasing finger trails, one hand around the exposed skin on Maria’s wrist and the skating other across her collarbone and neck. Maria is suddenly very aware of the frantic beating of her own heart and her ragged breaths. Just as the Widow curled a hand around the back of Maria’s neck, tugging the taller woman down the comms device splutters into activity.

“Agent Hill do you read?” The signal is faint and the voice distorted and but it’s there.

Maria jumps back from the Widow as if burnt and raises her hand, bringing the communicator closer to her mouth.

“Hill…” Maria hears the Black Widow muse and Maria curses under her breath.

“Didn’t catch that Agent Hill, repeat your status.” The comms device answered in reply to her curse.

“I’m fine.” Maria responds irately, watching the Black Widow engrossed in the sunrise dawning in the changing the sky, the soft infusion of pale pinks and oranges illuminating the cloud cover. Maria just barely overhears the Widow murmur something to herself in Russian.

“ _I had always thought fascinations with the sunrise foolish, but I see now why the colours it brings could make someone believe-”_

“What?” Maria interrupts her, shocked.

The Black Widow turns to look at her quizzically and Maria can’t help but pause and take in the way the emerging sunlight shines on her red hair, changing the bright strands to burnished gold and causing her already flawless skin to have a subtle glow.

“Oh fuck. Of course.” Maria paces back and forth at her sudden realisation, dropping her arm and ignoring the weak sounds from the comms device asking for her status.

“You can see the colours too.” The Widow states, her eyes shining and looking unaccountably pleased for someone who had just found out their soulmate is -collaborative escape attempt aside, an enemy.

“When did this happen?” Maria questions the spy forcefully, her eyes narrowing as she tries to think of a way this could all be a coincidence.

“Around an hour before I met you in the holding cell.”

Maria nods resignedly, the redhead moves closer to her and she backs off, hand hovering cautiously over the gun in her belt.

“Just because you’re my soulmate doesn’t mean you’re a good person.” Maria sees the Widow’s bright eyes dull.

“I’m not a good person.” The Widow answers softly. “I have done… terrible things.”

“You still do terrible things.” Maria replies harshly.

“I don’t think so, not for a while now.”

“The Red Room-”

“I’ve not been with the Red Room since I burned down their academy in Moscow. And Belarus.” Natasha adds. A satisfied look flitting over her features before her blank mask is in place again.

"Why were you at Lesnoy if not to steal the blueprints?"

"I was there to take the plans yes, but not to sell. I had a contact in H.A.M.M.E.R. who was going to use them to stop Hydra’s plans."

“H.A.M.M.E.R.? You can’t be serious, all they do is try and make S.H.I.E.L.D. look bad. They don’t care about actually making the world safer, it’s all government contracts and power to them.” Natasha looks at Maria steadily, assessing, and Maria raises her chin and concentrates on not fidgeting. Which ordinarily wouldn’t be a problem, but at some point during this op her body had started to feel like electricity was pulsating all over her skin.

“They seemed the best option.” The Widow shrugged. “Would you rather Hydra had it?”

“Of course not. But H.A.M.M.E.R.? You realise Osbourne just wants to takeover S.H.I.E.L.D. so he has no one to check up on what he’s actually doing over there. I heard he’s planning a team composed of an alien symbiote that likes to eat people, a deranged assassin and a masochist driven insane by guilt.

“I had… heard rumours of that.”

“And you thought they were the better choice than S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

“I didn’t know anyone at S.H.I.E.L.D., they have never done anything to be worthy of my help or trust.” Natasha said staring at Maria daring her to disagree. “If I had come to you before this with information on Hydra would you have believed me? Or would you have used my willingness to help as a way to take down the Black Widow?”

“You would have had to prove to us you were serious. I- S.H.I.E.L.D. can’t trust every superspy that comes to us with information. You forget I know about you too, I know what you’re capable of. This… thing between us changes nothing. Don’t think I’m going to just welcome you with open arms because I suddenly can see the colour of your hair.”

“Do you like my hair?” Natasha says, eyebrow raising again, causing Maria’s stomach to make excited little flips. God Maria was growing to hate those eyebrow raises. Maria opened her mouth to a scathing reply but to her dismay couldn’t think of one under the intense gaze of the Widow and promptly shut her mouth. “I like your eyes.” Natasha continued, clearly pleased with Maria’s non response. “I never dreamed such blues existed.” Natasha stared at Maria intently and to Maria’s horror she could feel a blush rising. Natasha’s lips curved into a breathtaking smile and Maria knew she had been unsuccessful in trying to control the blush.

And now she was staring at the Black Widow’s lips. She quickly averted her gaze, focusing on the Widow’s eyes before realising her error there. This must have been what they meant when they said you could drown in a person’s eyes.

Natasha draws her into her arms and pulls her down for a bruising, vicious, claiming kiss. Maria’s hands find themselves tangled in the spy’s hair as she sinks into the feel of Natasha’s lips on hers; her tongue teasing into Maria’s gasping mouth. Natasha’s hands running across and down her back, always trying to pull Maria closer to her.

“Natasha…”

“Oh, I like that.” The redhead purred, dragging her teeth down Maria’s neck, leaving bruising bites and kisses. Maria gasped and tugs the spy back up by her hair, attacking her mouth again.

Maria draws back when the lack of oxygen wins out over the feeling of Natasha pressed against her as the overriding feeling for her light-headedness. She steps back from the Widow, alarm bells ringing in her head.

“Don’t.” Natasha warns when she sees Maria’s face.

“Natasha this can’t happen.” Maria continues, ignoring the plea from the redhead.

Natasha pulls Maria back to her and stops a blow from Maria’s fist with her elbow, twirling Maria until somehow she has both of Maria’s hands captured by her arms.

“I don’t think this is going to be easy.” Natasha started, staring into Maria’s eyes. “But I do think it’s not something we should throw away without giving it a chance. The Red Room told me love is for children. We were conditioned to kill everyone within sight once we saw colour.”

“Is that what the fighting was back before we were taken to the cell?”

“You were there?” Natasha looks uncertain. “I didn’t see you.”

“I was nearby. Incapacitated.” Natasha nods at her explanation. “Did you kill them all?”

“They’ll live. I broke my conditioning long ago. The colours… distracted me. Momentarily.” The super spy looks embarrassed at her declaration.

“I thought it was one of the Hydra agents.”

“And are you glad it isn’t?” Natasha asked her, gazing into her eyes intently.

“I suppose the paperwork will be easier this way…”

“I never was much of a fan of paperwork.” Natasha said, slowly releasing the grip she still had on Maria’s arms.

“Well if your predilection for arson is true I can see why it might have been too much of a temptation for you.” Maria responded, pulling away from the redhead who took the opportunity to caress her skin as she pulled her hands from the spy.

“So why do you work alone but give information to agencies like H.A.M.M.E.R. instead of selling them?”

“I’ve got red in my ledger; I’d like to clean at least some of it while I can.” Natasha responds solemnly, all trace of her previous playfulness gone.

“If you’re serious about wiping the red from your ledger why not join S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

"Is this how everyone gets brought into shield?" Natasha asks quirking an eyebrow.

"More than you'd think, it's hard gaining clearance for relationships, if couples work for the same place they have to trust them to know what they do.”

"And what do you do?" Natasha asks playfully, lips curled in a seductive smile.

"Wrangle agents mostly." Maria replied carefully, trying to ensure her voice wasn’t obviously husky or uneven as she watched Natasha.

“So… we’d probably be working closely?” Natasha queries, drawing closer.

“Some might say too closely.” Maria responds dryly.

Natasha laughed at that, the sound hitting Maria’s stomach like a blow, tensing and causing blood to pump to places not conducive to getting out of Hydra territory alive. Maria’s focus was pulled away from the redhead’s bright eyes to the stroking of fingers across her arm and bicep.

Maria takes a step back from Natasha, moving until the fingers trail from her arm and the spy’s hand drops limply to her side. Maria raises her arm and speaks into the comm unit, watching Natasha.

“Norwood it’s Hill. Send a team for extraction at point D-27. And I’m bringing a guest.” Natasha’s smile turns the butterflies in her stomach into a tornado and closed the distance Maria had put between them.

“It’s a shame we didn’t get Hydra’s plans.”

“Who said we didn’t?” Natasha unzipped her bodysuit revealing enough skin to make Maria’s mouth go dry and pulled out a sheaf of papers.

“Another perk of joining S.H.I.E.L.D. is that our combat suits actually have pockets.” Maria comments wryly, unable to draw her eyes from the expanse of skin still on show.

“If I had pockets how would I entice S.H.I.E.L.D. agents?” Natasha arches a perfect eyebrow and holds out the papers to Maria.  

This time when Natasha pulls her closer she doesn’t fight it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm mixing up timelines with H.A.M.M.E.R. but the other organisations I could think of were either mutant or off world specific.  
> I'm just watching the new trailers and really pining for a Black Widow movie


End file.
